Oh Simple Thing
by Hafthand
Summary: The end is coming and Draco takes a minute to think and watch his fellow students.


**Title: Oh Simple Thing**

**Author: Hafthand**

**PG: for language**

**Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns um!**

**Summary: The end of everything**

**A/N: Hello people! This story is very dark! VERY DARK! It is very different from my current series 'A Reason' but it does involve Draco and Hermione. A lot is left up to your imagination here, but I must suggest that if you have the song 'Somewhere Only We Know' by Keane, that you listen to it while reading the story. I wrote the story to that song, though this is not a song-fic. I will be putting the lyrics at the end of the story for those who have never heard the song. It is an amazingly beautiful song and though I was working on my other story at the time, this idea hit me and I had to write it down! I hope you all like it, and let me know what you think!**

* * *

He sat leaning back against the chair, his feet spread out in front of him and his head resting on the chair back. His eyes were roaming the Great Hall taking in the everyday chaos that was the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But today was different, oh yes, very different. The air was charged with a false sense of normality. A strong undercurrent of fear and worry could be felt with every breath. 'Oh yes,' Draco thought to himself, 'today is very different.' 

The end was coming. The end of everything was coming and they all knew it. Each and every one of them new it was coming, and not one knew how to stop it. Draco Malfoy continued sitting in his chair nonchalantly as though the world were at total peace. The end of everything was coming and why should he care. Its not like he could stop it, and why did he want to. His life was not some bowl of fuckin cherries. Why should he care if by morning pretty much everyone in this room would be dead?

He continued sitting there not really listening to the idle chatter of his fellow Slytherins. He lay there, head thrown back, eyes taking it all in. It had occurred to him, as he was sitting there waiting patiently for his doom, that he had never actually noticed the Great Hall. The enchanted ceiling above them all was dancing with bright stars, tiny wisps of clouds rolling back and forth slightly. For a rare moment, Draco admitted that he was looking at a thing of beauty.

He was getting tired. His body felt as though he had been drugged as he sat there. The soft talk and quiet sobs of his fellow students was a distant sound. The candlelight was flickering as though a soft breeze were circling the room. Draco sighed. It was a sigh of resignation, a sigh of acceptance.

There really was nothing anyone could do. There had been pleading and plans of action put in place, but everyone knew it wouldn't be enough. Most everyone had come to accept it over the past twenty-four hours. Most had resigned themselves to death. Depressing, yes, but when there is no other alternative you start to crave it, to yearn for the end to come quickly so you could get it over with. Draco sat, silently letting the minutes go by, wishing his fate would hurry up and catch him so he could be done with it already.

Most of the students were in the Great Hall; most had been there all day. Classes had obviously been cancelled. There wasn't a need for them anymore. The teachers had disappeared, fighting their own battle elsewhere; the students left behind. Draco wondered for a moment how things had gotten so bad, how things had gotten so hopeless. He shrugged, unwilling to let his mind linger on such things. Suddenly the Great Hall doors opened and his eyes were drawn to it. His head still resting on the back of the chair, his eyes locked onto the people currently entering the hall. Some heads turned to see who was entering, but most turned back to their grief and their friends. Not Draco.

He ignored the others around her; he ignored everything but her. His eyes locked onto her slight form as he watched her move across the Great Hall with a grace he didn't think anyone should be allowed to possess. She was walking slowly, her eyes red from crying. It had only been yesterday that her best friend had been taken from her. It had been only yesterday that the war started. It had been only yesterday that they had all been left behind. She was surrounded by her usual group of friends and Draco watched as they moved slowly towards the Gryffindor tables, backs held high.

But all he noticed was her. She was as real to him as anything had ever been. He could not explain it, but he felt it to his very bones. It wasn't love. No, love was not something Draco Malfoy would ever be capable of. Instead it felt more like a deep sense of respect. He watched her smile almost painfully to Ginny Weasley. For the second time that night, Draco realized that he was looking upon something beautiful.

Hermione Granger had haunted his dreams for years, both the good and the bad ones. He had always known his blood placed him above her, yet she excelled at everything she did. She bettered him when her blood should not allow her to. He saw her and he saw beauty, something Draco Malfoy should never have allowed himself to see. But what did it matter now? Who would care or even know if he watched her with admiration and respect? Who would condemn him when he was already condemned?

He watched as she reached the middle of the hall and paused, feeling his eyes upon her. Her friends continued on, not noticing that she fell behind. She turned slowly and brought her dark eyes up to meet his light ones. Her eyes were sad and lonely, yet he was shocked to realize that they held no fear. He smirked slightly at her ever-present Gryffindor courage.

He lifted his head up and sat forward slightly allowing himself to drink her in. She had been his adversary for so long, the only one who had ever matched him, and even now, in their final hour, she matched his courage. He watched as a small hint of a smile crept onto her face. He continued to stare fiercely at her, and she met his gaze just as strongly. Oh yes, he was her better, but for the first time they were suddenly equals. His eyes tried to convey some form of emotion to hers. He tried desperately to find anything but hate in her beautiful eyes; anything but the sympathy he had always found there.

By now, most of the hall had noticed their Head Girl standing in the middle of the aisle staring intensely at their Head Boy. Neither was moving, their eyes seemingly locked in an endless battle. Draco was aware of the looks sent his way, not only from the Slytherins, but also from the other tables. He didn't care. The only thing he could have ever cared about, had he been given the chance, was standing there staring back at him with an intensity he had always yearned to see from her. The Hall had grown silent, their impending doom momentarily forgotten as they watched the Slytherin Prince and the Gryffindor Princess gaze at each other.

Suddenly, he figured if there was ever a time to take a chance it was now. He didn't care about the consequences his next actions would bring. He didn't have to. He stood up, knocking his chair down behind him. It crashed to the floor echoing loudly in the silent hall. He took a few slow steps towards the middle of the hall around the table, his eyes never leaving hers. Once the table was behind him he quickened his stride, the need to reach her, to touch her growing unbearably strong.

He watched as her eyes rid themselves of any sadness and turned even darker, clouded with intensity and desire. When he was halfway to her, she broke out into a run and they met halfway in a collision of lips, tongues, hands, and bodies. He slammed his body into hers, his lips crashing down violently and possessively onto hers. His hands wrapped in her hair pulling her impossibly closer as his tongue pushed its way into her mouth to do battle with hers. Her arms flew to his back where she balled her hands into fists around the material of his robes. He lowered a hand from the tangle of her hair and let it brush down the side of her face, confirming that her skin was as soft as he had always imagined. One of her hands left his back and traveled up to his head, pushing him further into her. Her tiny body met his, inch for inch. Draco felt his mind spinning as his tongue violently explored her hot mouth. If he had believed in Heaven, he was pretty sure it would feel exactly like her.

The tiredness he had felt seeping into his being earlier started to disappear only to be replaced with a feeling he had never felt before. His body was vibrating with the intensity of their embrace and he felt his knees go out under him. Her lips never leaving his, she followed him down until they were kneeling against each other, everything around them forgotten. Nothing but this moment mattered to Draco anymore. He didn't care about tomorrow; he only wanted to focus on now. He had never thought he would miss anything about his life. The minute her lips had crashed into his, he knew he had been wrong. He was just grateful he had been allowed to taste her once before he was gone.

Their friends and enemies around them all continued to stare for several more minutes before turning back to their friends and their own thoughts. They left the two Heads of their school alone in the crowded hall. They let them have a moment of peace. They let them disappear into a place only they knew. Most of them couldn't help but wonder what tomorrow would bring.

For most of them, tomorrow never came.

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**A/N: I warned you all it was going to be pretty dark and depressing! Well tell me what you think! I am including the lyrics to Keane's song below as it was the complete inspiration for this story, especially the chorus : So if you have a minute why don't we go/Talk about it somewhere only we know?/This could be the end of everything/So why don't we go/Somewhere only we know? Try and read the lyrics, they are beautiful! Thank you!**

**Somewhere Only We Know**

**I walked across an empty land   
****I knew the pathway like the back of my hand   
****I felt the earth beneath my feet   
****Sat by the river and it made me complete   
****Oh simple thing where have you gone   
****I'm getting old and I need something to rely on   
****So tell me when you're gonna let me in   
****I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin**

**I came across a fallen tree   
****I felt the branches of it looking at me   
****Is this the place we used to love?   
****Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?**

**Oh simple thing where have you gone   
****I'm getting old and I need something to rely on   
****So tell me when you're gonna let me in   
****I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin   
****   
So if you have a minute why don't we go   
****Talk about it somewhere only we know?   
****This could be the end of everything   
****So why don't we go   
****Somewhere only we know?**

**Oh simple thing where have you gone   
****I'm getting old and I need something to rely on   
****So tell me when you're gonna let me in   
****I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin**

**So if you have a minute why don't we go   
****Talk about it somewhere only we know?   
****This could be the end of everything   
****So why don't we go   
****Somewhere only we know?   
****   
****This could be the end of everything   
****So why don't we go   
****Somewhere only we know?**

**Love, Ally**

**"O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand,   
****That though mightst think upon these by the seal,   
****Through whom a thousand sighs are breathed for thee.   
****So get thee gone, that I may know my grief."   
****-Henry VI Part 2 (III, ii, 333-66)**


End file.
